Steampunk Prime_ A Vintage Steampunk Reader - Mike Ashley [94]
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*Appendix LVI, of the Blue Books gives a few fragments of this speech and conjectural translations. It seems to be established beyond doubt that La-Lu-Le was a profession of affection, but its exact force is thought to have differed according to the syllable accented.
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The City was swarming with the lights, I heard, and a bright swarm of them was visible hanging over Brixton. People were running from that direction into Herne Hill. A hatless man with the lights on his vest was standing on the top of a cab outside the station praying aloud, and a crowd was kneeling in the street.
As I could not get into a train I walked back to Dulwich, and went to Phyllis. People were leaving their houses, in cabs or on foot, for the country. Probably we should have fled likewise, but her mother was ailing and unable to be moved. I did not ask her. Her father had started for town earlier than I. He did not return, and we never heard of him again. Many people disappeared like that in those days.
An early evening edition, hastily printed on a small portion of a single half-sheet, related that all the hospitals and public buildings in town were full of sufferers, and that whole streets had been commandeered for those who were crowded out. A local Plague Committee was hastily formed to make arrangements in West Dulwich. I offered my services, and worked all the morning at getting one of the houses in order, and laying in provisions, etc. As I was going back to Phyllis’s to lunch, along Thurlow Park Road, Doris Fane rushed out from her house. She had the triangle of lights upon her blouse, and another was fluttering behind her. They were much the same color as her pale yellow hair. She was white and half distracted with fear, and she ran to me and clung to my arm. We had always been friends, and I think, if I hadn’t met Phyllis, I should have grown fond of her.
“See!” She cried, pointing to the light following behind her — “See! It is looking for its mate. He will be my lover, when it finds him. I shouldn’t be so frightened if it were you. Didn’t you know that I cared for you, Frank? I can tell you now, because I am going to die. Take them away-Oh! Take them away!” She tore wildly at the fiendish lights upon her breast.
The other lights hovered around me — brushed my arm. I closed my eyes and shuddered. It was the thought that Phyllis would wait for me, look for me in vain, that frightened me most; but when I opened my eyes again, the lights were fluttering away, up the hill, towards the high school. Doris released her hold upon my arm and followed them slowly, looking backward with her eyes fixed on me.
I went on to Phyllis’s house in Croxted Road. A number of the lights were flitting about the road. When they came near me I ran. I did not hope to escape them, but I wanted to get to Phyllis first. When I reached her gate I heard Dr. Hallam’s voice through the open window. We had been rivals for Phyllis, and I had won. He was a better man than I, but there is no accounting for a woman’s fancy.
“Let them take me too,” he cried. “I am willing to die with you. I always loved you Phyllis.”
“Hush!” She said gently. “Hush! I love Frank. I always shall while I am myself.” Then she saw me and flung out her arms, and I saw the yellow spots on her dress. They looked like golden ornaments; and the others looked like a halo of stars over her dark hair. “Frank! Frank! Run away, dear. It has taken me. It wants you — the other one. You are safe from the rest. I know. Run away from me and you will be saved. God bless you, dear!”
I vaulted in at the window and took her in my arms. I did not notice when the other lights settled on me, or anything but the tears in her eyes. She smiled at me through them. Presently I looked down and found the three yellow spots on my breast. They did not burn, or hurt in any way, but they seemed to be drawing my very